Poet William Butler Yeats with his son, Michael, and daughter, Anne, in the grounds of...

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. Thoor Ballylee was the Norman castle home in which during the summer months he lived with his wife, George, and children. In 1975 Michael Yeats had this to say about the photo: “"Most people have seen my father with the two children, my sister and I, sitting in a field - it’'s at Ballylee and this is sort of family portrait, the family man relaxing with his children. But the giveaway is a book lying on the grass in front of us which has been carefully put down on it’s back so that the page won’'t be lost, and one can imagine my mother having come along and saying, ”Now, Willie, you must sit with the children and be photographed,” but the book was left out so that the moment this unfortunate process was over, he’d get back to it. He was very much not the kind of father who went romping with the children. We barely really saw him-only short periods. He never took part in the ordinary running of the household or looking after the children or anything like that.”"